Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. Without question, as everyone will agree, the principle underpinning the Children Act is that detention should be seen as a measure of last resort. I fail to see, therefore, why the Minister is opposing the amendment, or how accepting it would in any way diminish or weaken the Bill. All it could do is strengthen it by ensuring it would make it explicit that detention was a measure of last resort. As previous speakers rightly said, we should be in the business of rehabilitating, supporting and working with children who find themselves in a particular position.

I visited Oberstown recently as part of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children. The building is magnificent, but, ultimately, the children who end up there are captive. They are prisoners in a building, which does nothing to rehabilitate them. If children end up in such a position, society has failed them. Putting them in a place such as Oberstown should be seen as a last resort. I hope the Minister will take on board the amendment in the spirit in which I am sure it was submitted.

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